TNAG-1710-FCO40-2386-Royal-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 156

CODE 18-77

”་ M2

Arkwright, HKD

UNCLASSIFIED

Miss Robson

Het 385 18

23 OCT 1987

FICER

X

NEION

DRAFT UN CONVENTION ON ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING

1.

Mr David Bentley, the Home Office Legal Adviser who had been attending the drafting group on the new Convention in Vienna rang on 12 October with a question from

Mr Gareth Mulloy from Hong Kong.

2.

The draft arrangements in the Convention provide that in case of mutual assistance it will be for parties to the Convention to designate "a central authority". Mr Mulloy thought that it would be useful for more than one "central authority" to be able to be designated so that the Attorney General of Hong Kong could be specified as

contact rather than have to pass through the UK "central authority" every time.

3.

Mr Mulloy wondered whether this was a reasonable view to take and whether, if we agreed it was, we would work to see such a provision included; and he would also like to know whether we had any objection to his talking about the problem to the representatives of the Peoples' Republic of China.

4.

-

Please would you pursue this question with Hong Kong Department. We should also, however, be clear whether the same problem applies to the other Dependent Territories would we, for example, wish to designate the Attorney General of Gibraltar or of some Caribbean Dependencies?

5. We shall need to send instructions to UKMis Vienna as soon as possible, although Mr Bentley believed that, given the frighteningly inept chairmanship of the drafting group (unfortunately by Parejo Gonzales), it is unlikely that the relevant Article will be reached before the drafting group breaks up at the end of this week.

J.p.

J Poston

NCAD

13 October 1987

CC:

NA Nagler Esq

C5 Division

Home Office

N29ACB